Ernest Callenbach dies at 83; wrote environmental novel 'Ecotopia'
Ernest "Chick" Callenbach, a film scholar and environmentalist who created a cult favorite in "Ecotopia," a 1975 novel that predicted with uncanny accuracy a world where recycling is commonplace, food is locally grown and energy comes from the sun, died April 16 in Berkeley. He was 83.
The cause was cancer, said his wife, Christine Leefeldt.
"Ecotopia" described a utopian world created by the secession of Oregon, Washington and Northern California from the United States. It takes place in 1999 when a New York newspaper reporter becomes the first American visitor since Ecotopia's founding 19 years earlier. The story unfolds through the reporter's articles and diary entries about his experiences in a country governed by eco-friendly principles and a female president.
The book has sold nearly 1 million copies since Callenbach and several friends scraped together enough money for a modest first printing. Later republished by Bantam, it has been translated into a dozen languages, most recently Chinese, and is read in college courses on literature and environmentalism.
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-ernest-callenbach-20120425,0,2839981.story
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I did *NOT* like Ecotopia. I used it in an artwork.
I like to imagine this art was kept, but even if it was tossed in a dumpster it still exists today in some landfill. That's art too.
This was the early 80's. My girlfriend at the time was crazy for Callenbach. They flirted.
I think she must have told him about me because when I sat in the front row of one of his lectures he looked at me funny, maybe even a little worried.
Of course this was the woman who thought Eraserhead was a good date movie, and not a reliable judge of character, most especially her own. For all I know she may have seen Eraserhead with him too.
A friend of Callenbach gave me another copy of Ecotopia to replace the one I'd mutilated. I still have it.
I think I've been "Living Poor with Style" my entire life, but not always by choice.
It's always better when you have a choice.
He was 83??? Man, I feel much older today.
Thank you for writing, Ernest Callenbach. 
to get a conversation started about what a truly "green" society would look like.
Some of the ideas in it were brilliant, and other ideas did not weather the changing times well.
Ecotopia Emerging was dreadful. 
Well, to be fair, the first 3/4 of Ecotopia Emerging was dreadful. The last 1/4 might have been the best thing ever put to paper, but I wouldn't know because I abandoned the effort before I got there.